had we figure out a way to e e e e e what are Tri one of those broken chairs
we need to get a or or something B not for Fe think SE I'd like to call the meeting to order pursuant to the New Jersey open
public meetings acts njsa 10 4 through1 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by advertising such notice in the home News Tribune the Asbury Park Press the board office the schools and on Vision channel 118 and Verizon fins channel 24 and by filing such notice
with the Township Clerk the meeting was scheduled for Tuesday February 11th 2025 the board will take formal action on payment of bills and other agenda items Mr weow the Oldbridge Township Board of Education acknowledges that the law of this state establishes that members of
the public including members of the board have the right to record public board meetings using audio or video recording devices provide that the actor recording does not interfere with the business of this public board meeting therefore the board makes it known that any such recording is to be considered the private recording of the individual and in no manner represents the official
record of this board the board therefore takes no responsibility for such private recording and completely disavows any future use roll call please dun here Francisco here gardano here jri
here mazone here Slade here solowski here here Ben is absent and Dan tuno here we have a quorum we will have a um moment of
silence next week pledge of alleg oh pledge I'm sorry can we all stand for the pledge I pledge United States thank you so we will have a moment of silence next
week ethics corner is there someone who would like to read it next week I'll read it um District goals and board goals uh we will be approving next week so that we'll be able to go in there any questions on the minutes minutes are
coming okay and we'll have our student um we'll have our retirement next week any superintendent report we're going to do one tonight yes we will be handling one tonight under the business administrator's uh report all right this evening we have um
our audit presented by Michael panel of Samuel kleinan company um the audit is um on the agenda for approval at next week's meeting upon approval we have to upload that send this uh certificate of that to the county as as well as upload
do all our final uploads on those minutes so uh tonight we will have Michael p panel of Samuel kleinon company who's the independent auditor present on our 2324 fiscal audit uh good evening everyone uh my name is Mike pel and I represent the
firm Samuel kleinon company uh we are in indep auding firm licensed with the state of New Jersey and are appointed by the board to perform the June 30th 2024 School audit um an annual audit is required each year by the Department of
Education and has a submission date of December 5th however for this year the deadline was extended to January 15th and um I would like to thank them for that extra time it's always helpful when you have um extra time um and I'm I'm pleased to report that your audit was
filed by this Due Date With All State and um County agencies um before I get into some of the financials um common question I get asked is um well what do you do for an audit so I'd like to take some time just to go over some of the tests some of the
items um we look at when we perform our audit um each year Department education releases what is called the school audit program these are the compliance requirements and audit procedures that that we must file to meet state
regulations um these requirements are uh divided into three categories General compliance specific compliance and Reporting um I'll highlight some of the test and procedures we do for each section um but first I'd like to point out that an audit is not 100%
verification um all our testing is based on samples and uh we based our conclusions on those samples that we test um another common question I get asked is um how long does it take to perform an audit um usually it takes
around three months to complete the audit and that um starts from uh the day we come in for field work usually takes about four to five weeks uh we're back in the office usually for another couple weeks um printing out work papers um
doing our audit programs um then we all then it's in for typing then it gets proof r then it gets uh two- partner review and then finally it's uh released um at this time I like to go
over the audit program so the first section General compliance um some of the items we look at um we read through your minutes making sure that they're complete um next thing we'll do is um
we'll look at the application for State student student aid um this this is the uh the count that's performed on October 15th we'll um review that count make sure it has um proper documentation proper workpapers
are there again we'll do some sampling make sure that um student counts agree to um attendance records um and uh just to make sure everything is uh in agreement uh we also look at bids and contracts in your purchasing
department make sure those records are complete um we'll also um go through all the ledgers from the business office we'll make sure that um they agree to your treasur report uh Bank wrecks are
complete um after we go through all the financials then if there's any audit journals we'll Supply them to the business office so then you guys could roll over uh to your next um school year uh section two is um specific compli
iance now this is where it gets down to actual um funds within your um District so the first fund is fund 10 that's your general fund that's your main operating account this is where all your um main expenditures and um pretty much all your
Revenue gets deposited uh your main revenue is your um school um I'm sorry is your unrestricted state aid this is um all your different AIDs that come in throughout the year here and also your uh
taxes um so we verify that you receive all your state aid all your taxes are coming over from the uh the township and any other uh Revenue in your miscellaneous account will also verify um on the expenditure side we'll
do our um test of POS or test of transactions where um we'll verify that there's proper support for each purchase order we'll verify that there's proper signatures on your vouchers and we'll um
verify that all expenditures go through um your bill list um then we'll also look at compensation this is our payroll testing um some of the things we look at for payroll testing is we'll do a sample of um employees and then we also look at
high salary employees so we're looking we're testing um contracts to make sure every bu is being paid per their contracts we um we look at health insurance with um withholdings make sure
um people who are who are receiving health benefits are um their deductions are correct and um we also verify pension amounts and overall for payroll we'll make sure that um all the uh quarterly taxes are being filed um on a
timely matter as well uh the next fund is fund 20 this is your special Revenue fund this is your Grant accounting and um a few years back they also added Student Activities and a scholarship fund to this uh to this fund so again we're always verifying receipts
are coming in making sure that they are um accounted for properly in the correct fund and again um we also verify dispersements um for Student
Activities we will um go through each um account verify again receipts are coming in there proper um receipts are being issued and um dispersements one of the key factors we look at for Student
Activities is that the um expenditures going out are for the students that they're not for like um office supplies or anything else that doesn't benefit the student so um that's one thing we key on that um anything that is being first out of the Student
Activities is for the students uh the next fund is um fund 30 capital projects this is your um construction account so any type of um construction like if you're building a new school if um replacing Windows uh
boilers all that accounting has to run through fund 30 in this separate account um so we'll verify that if any of those projects are taking place that they've been properly accounted for for uh the next fund is your fund 40 this is your debt service
account um so basically if the uh District can't fund a project that um internally they might have to go out for a bond or a note so if this is the case this is where the uh that liability is accounted for so again we'll we'll make
sure that um proper accounting is in place and um if there's a tax l for Debt Service we make sure that has been transferred to this account and the uh bonds principal or not principal and interest have been paid from this
account uh the next account is fund 60 this is your Enterprise um account this is where all your food service activity takes place so we'll look at um again daily sales we'll look at the uh Child Nutrition program this is your
reimbursements for free paid and reduced lunch we make sure that that those um vouchers were properly um submitted they were um received and we also look at the uh Food Service company's profit and loss statement we'll tie that into
District records to make sure that there's no discrepancies there we'll verify some uh lunch applications and um we'll make sure that the food service contract the the management no I'm sorry management fee is um correctly paid as well um then
last ly there's some other items I like to just touch on Capital assets um we will verify that um your Capital assets are updated each year um anything purchased by the board has to be transferred to this account and um
updated each year with uh depreciation as well uh another account is your long-term liabilities these are your compensated absences and lease payments again this has to be updated each year and will verify that um that it it's
done so uh another account we look at is the single audit this is um your Grant testing so if there's this is based on your Grant expenditures if it's over a certain threshold then it triggers a single audit and there's two single
audits there's a federal single audit and a state single audit and this whole section is just dedicated to that there's more schedules that need to be um filled out and there's um more testing we need to do and the testing is
based on the grants we need to um to look at so it could be more salary testing and it could be more um contracts and tuition payable and it and it and it could be for um other items as well and then finally there's What's
called the statistical section also known as the J section this is there's about 20 schedules here that we need to go through it's anywhere from debt analysis to um Revenue comparisons to
Insurance schedules um and some of them are on a a 10-year comparison so then lastly it's reporting um everyone has an has a copy of the audit report the state is very particular with the format of the audit
it has to be in a two book report um the thicker one is the um annual comprehensive financial report so in this report here you will find everything I just mentioned all the financial exhibits will be in here um
it'll contain all the notes to the financial statements and it has to be in a particular order if it's not in the order prescribed by the the uh State Department it'll get rejected and you'll have to correct
it and then secondly is the uh thinner report is the management report um this report is probably the most relevant to the board because it contains the district's fund balance determination and could also contain
audit findings um but once again I'm pleased to report that there were no audit findings this year um during our testing there were no material exceptions that came to our uh attention that would require us to document it in this
report um and I would like uh to commend the district on the recordkeeping um it's some of the the best um records I've come across in all my years so um like to commend the uh business office on uh great
recordkeeping um next I'd like to go through the district's fund balance allocation um uh if you like to follow along you can find the uh fund balance allocation on page 96 of the um financial
report um so as of June 30th uh the big book yes yeah it should be the yeah page 96 um so as of June 30th 2024 the
district had a total fund balance of 27 million $296,400 and that balance is comprised of the following reserves 5 m361 N3 is assigned and has been
designated to support the 20 425 budget uh $222,800 is committed to year-end incumbrances $268,400 32 has been designated to State unemployment insurance Reserve fund uh
the next two Reserve balances were all established by board resolution the first one 14 m451 7446 is designated for capital reserve projects and of that 14 million um you
have allocated 1 million 9845 45 to support the 2425 budget um the next Reserve Balan is $4,699 45 which has been designated in
the maintenance Reserve fund however 4,800 $75 has already been used to support the 2425 budget and finally 2,822 3615936400 rep uh during the audit and
um I would like to say um it was a seamless audit this year with Dave as a new business administrator and look forward to working with him and uh orridge District uh in the future thank you open it up for uh any questions I have a question it's more
out of curiosity than like budget the depreciation of items purchased who decides like how quickly it depreciates it does it depend on what you have a you have a um a company that um based
on what type of asset it is it's giving a useful life so um a building could be 30 years uh piece of equipment could be five years depends upon you know what type of equipment it is I'm not sure if this will be a
question for you or David um but you know we've put almost 27 million doll into a fund reserve and obviously Pol politics plays a huge role in what happens in school districts and if our members on this board can remember what
Chris Christie did he rated the board of education's fund balances and took all that money back in 2011 now with what's happening this election cycle where there's a good possibility that the political atmosphere may change what will stop the new
Administration coming in saying well you got $27 million in your fund balance we're going to take it like Chris Christie did so how can we protect ourselves to make sure that money is not rated it's a question where it doesn't have a a an answer right now but I would
I would say and I'm hopeful uh the majority of that fund balance is really from the sale of property and it's in our capital reserve so because there's a tangible sale of that property and again all of the fund balance was our balance but because there was a sale of their property I'd be hopeful that they
wouldn't take you know those funds I think in reality is if you compared uh this audit to a few years ago you would have seen a much higher uh fund balance but it's the impact of S2 that you know has driven us to to really have a a much lower fund balance and and again when
Mike says speaks to the um you know that that 2% we spent under the 2% so that really shows that the community to the board the revenues that we're bringing in is is really the the expenditure is going out there's no if there's a certain over 2% you put that back into
your your subsequent budget year um back to the taxpayers last year so for the 2223 audit any funds that were going back into the 2425 budget which was this current year I think it was just 146,000 is what we owed back to the tax corre to
the taxpayers are back in the budget now this year um for the 25 26 we're below that so uh there's no money that has to go back in the budget and and you know that's the concern is really as much revenue as we're bringing in we're
spending it out as well so so David are you are you saying that this year we're running uh on par and we're not going to be running in the black where when we run in the black we can put the monies into the excessive fund balance to carry over and Save in reserves so as of right now are you
saying that we're on Target and we're not going to be running into the black come so 30th and I have said this we're for the 2324 audit again we are under the 2% so the money is that we could have replenished in capital and maintenance
Reserve was not there so as Mike spoke that maintenance reserve of $4 million to fund this year's budget for 2425 we Ed $4 million so that money is not available in 2526 because we weren't able to replenish it so if by your
question essentially we know right off the that were're behind $4 million on a revenue that we had last year and won't have this year so when you talk about obviously our tax levy we increased to 9.9 so it's higher than it ever would have been in Prior years if you only
went up to 2% but not having that $4 million available puts us already behind the eightball uh a pretty large eightball so that that's a big concern that I have going into the budget that we'll talk about you know going forward now with r with ratables being up here
in Oldbridge town ship now how is the ratables going to impact that $4 million that uh you're forecasting well the $4 million for the reserves when you have it in maintenance reserve it can only go back to um really our general maintenance so when we talk
about ratables and again it's often discussed in the budget presentation that I gave the Township in the grand scheming things is behind there are average assessed value in the home of Oldbridge with our uh so last March or so was about
154,000 so 150 I think it was 154,000 right around that range maybe 157 but you know we know those numbers are not as accurate and we we said that as a board and it's a Township thing as far as reassessment um the ratables have been um you know we lost a little bit
because parts of the re utilities used to be in the ratables they're no longer in as well so um I will be talking to the township as far as what those new numbers are certified for for January um but more so it's a little bit different the ratables as far as what um you know we're getting
back but the $4 million again is some we had that in our expenditures or in our revenues in the past we don't have that so that that's the immediate you know right away ratables aside the reserve funding the savings account that I kind
of spoke to as a a you know metaphor last year the savings is is is really gone because that was reserved that we were able to use in our general fund budget whereas that capital reserve the healthiest one really we can only do our Capital Improvements with with those
funding so that's that's a big concern we can we can start doing a bunch of uh you know hvac's but then in the grand scheme of things that's also our cash flow where we have in the in the account so a healthy cash flow brings in some interest and some extra Revenue at the end of the year um when you start to
pleading that then you really have have nothing so of course I would love to to start doing all our hvac's and like that stuff that we have missed out on doing because of our S2 S2 cuts um it's just that having that balance in our accounts essentially allows for cash flow some
interest and just making sure that uh you know because tax levy comes every month so you make sure you can cover your payroll and your expenditures by having a little cash flow essentially and cash balance in your account so you're saying that the the revenue or the interest that's being
made on the $14 million which 10 million $10 million is for sales of properties that interest is put into the general fund and utilized for programs most most of it is and then we can assign at the end of the year and in the audit we then we kind of take all right what really
was the the interest from the uh maintenance and capital and then we we divy that out during our audit but it just it just helps for again that cash flow that we have during the year thank you David I can see that there's no irregularities in this uh
audit I think it's it's a testament to to the district your abilities David sados and the entire Administration making sure that the the audit is clean and that there is no impropriety or anything that's a skew and that uh is very refreshing thank you David thank
you yeah I just want to add to that that um you know let's say it every year it's a it's a running record I think it's the 12th year in a row we've had no findings uh in our about 12 years yeah 12 years in a row since uh this Administration took over that we've had no findings in
our audit report and it's it's great to have a a good business department that we can count on and work together as a team um and one of the things that I even you know I learned a few years ago with the importance of that cash flow and the sales of you know of properties to help with that is you know a lot of
times the well often the state anything else for the superintendent report this week okay uh progress towards goals we can um after we approve them next week then we can start working on that any correspondence
as of now no correspondence for tonight okay uh we will have special committee reports um we'll have two I think next week um and then the Committees now that we have goals and things like that we can start uh making some dates uh the
care Dei committee got roped um not roped enveloped in to um the student life so we're moving that meeting from the 19th of February to the 27th um it was suggested by one of the board members to try and have the committee meetings on Tuesdays and
Thursdays um if possible for the public for easier planning and for the board as well so we're going to try and um work with that if possible but no thanks I um and we also are trying to plan a finance meeting tentatively scheduled
for Thursday February 20th okay thank a quick question is there a curricular meeting tomorrow yeah it's not a so there is no curriculum meeting
tomorrow that's for April 1 and then there is a tentative Finance meeting on the 20th Finance meeting would be committee the whole so it would be the entire board um Ted for 6: PM so that's again our first real um you know budget
budget talk that's Memorial's tricky trade I won't be there the TW Thursday the 20th we will have other Finance meetings it's just you know we we're trying to get I'm kind of running a Tricky Tray that day so as you'll as as we see the board goals and the district goals and we talk about budget this will
be you know me trying to bring as much information as possible to the board um to start you know having those those deeper discussions so any other comments or questions on special committee reports all right uh hearing of residents on any
agenda item okay we'll close the mic um as of now there's nothing for policy any questions on the curriculum professional development yes uh so Mr wiell or Mr Parton the um
revisions to the curriculum how necessary or mandatory are they there is there is a growing Trend with the school ethics commission that the state learning the student learning standards
the sls's are in the nature of state law and that some districts that have failed to pass those there is talk of whether that is a per se ethics violation that is developing and it's something that we're going to need to keep in mind as
we get into the spring because it is certainly an issue that is a live issue in Old Bridge uh it's not a definite thing yet but it is something that the school ethics commission is putting out warnings about does that answer your questions yeah no because it seems like a lot and I think if we're going to be cutting
things this year that should be especially because if most of the curriculum is going to be the same as the previous years doesn't seem to make sense to redo them I I I've touched on it in you know previous times when we voted on it so typically our typically our curriculum guides are revised every
five years um not this past qack but two qacs ago uh we did get um a number of points taken off because we didn't have curriculum because it was a I guess it was before Mr Shino was with an intrum superintendent um and uh since then
we've uh done all of our curriculum guides every five years um additionally there are changes when new standards come in like for example last year when we had math and English we had to do both of those so this is uh a fiveyear update that we typically do I have a spreadsheet I'll send you tomorrow that
has all of dates and times for each one of those respective curriculum guides it's it's gauged over 10 years so you can take a look at that if you have any questions give me a call and again just as a curriculum writing is always something that's included within the budget as a lump sum and when we have
the conversation we can certainly go through that but it's something that we make sure is budgeted for um whether you know can't speak to to Prior boards but whether they thought it was necessary or not um it's something that again to Mr
porn point you know as it's becoming you know the not the discussion of whether it's uh required or not or right thing to do or not but it is something that's just always included within the budget um based on a a prospected summary yeah my understanding is like we
take all of our curriculum and divy it up into like a fiveyear thing so that it breaks up the budgetary part of it but also this is something that we usually have done more over the summer and due tover conversations we had last year we moved it up um in the calendar so that
we as a board can review the information you know with more time rather than look at it and vote on it right away am I correct any correct so next the timeline is uh this is the first round um the next round will come in March uh all curriculum guides are due um by the may
I want to say May 26th curriculum meeting it's May 26 or May 21st uh those will all be presented to the board at that curriculum meeting they will not have to be voted on in June they can be voted on in August so that would give upwards of 90 plus days to review any of the curriculum guides uh there will be
more curriculum writing on the next agenda in March specific to uh CTE um some guidance updates and also challenge so those will be coming as well but most of our major ones math English science social studies are not being Rewritten this year um but the uh span uh excuse
me World Language CTE um and a lot of the uh arts and cultures are being Rewritten any other questions on curriculum okay Finance we're doing this one can I
motion can I have a motion for motion second please D will second Madam president any discussion roll call please ji yes yes maone yes SL yes
solowski yes fet ton is absent dun yes Francisco yes jedo yes danant tuno yes the resolution passes any questions on items 3 through 13 on
finance okay moving on to Athletics any questions uh for now there's nothing on non-certificated personel office um for operational any questions on that one
okay can I have a motion for non-certificated personnel other Jano motion M second any discussion roll call please if V get ton is absence we'll go
to Dun yes Francisco yes Jano yes Jodi yes maone yes SL yes solowski yes Dan tuna yes resolutions one for noner personnel other passes okay any discussion or any
questions on items two through eight okay can I have a motion for certificated Personnel items 1 through four m motion Joel Second we do have an administrative correction here uh for
resolution number one um within the agenda it's to approve amend or extend the leave of absence a correction is being made on attachment D1 line item for uh car comment Anthony Anthony car updating the effective dates in the
unpaid medical column as follows from 17 pares 1/4 to 22 8 25 so that's the from the two is now going to be 25 parentheses 1/4 to
22825 that is the administrative correction if if Dr hoker has any clarification on the parentheses or the numbers feel free but that is the administrative correction any discussions on items one through four roll call please
yes Francisco Jano yes J yes maone yes slay yes solowski yes Bena ton is absent Dan tuno yes resolutions 1 through four certificate Personnel
passes yes Madam president I want to bring up number 14 um obviously we are receiving a unified Champion School Grant to help with our play unified of $17,700 uh obviously that's going to be
utilized I believe to provide stiens uh for our staff who are um running the programs so after this year is that Grant going to be available for future um use or is it a one-time Grant and if
it's only a one-time Grant then we have to make a concerted decision whether or not we're going to uh fund U project UniFi going forward this coming year so is it a one-time Grant or is it has to be applied for what's the process
with that Special Olympics Grant the the grant has been an annual basis but has been uh I guess decreasing uh annually as well um there is talk that at one time at some time that Grant won't be available obviously in The
District in to District that is um you know decreasing in our funds I would encourage us to always appro approve or apply for any Grant in which we get funds um to support the program but uh as has didn't been the will of this
board that though that the funds from the grant will go towards um the UniFi program the board will fund the program and regardless regardless of the Grant
and how much the grant receives so this coming budget cycle we will have to discuss whether or not we want to fund uh play unified here with the district so that's something which I will implore my uh board colleagues to
consider it's a remarkable program uh that helps our most challenged children with social skills you know when they play in a sports program or they participate in a club it helps them assimilate to the mainstream which is
very very important and I'm very proud that our district encourages and endorses this program and I can tell you unequivocally that it has paid immense dividends uh for many of our children so I want to thank my board colleagues and the administration for always looking at
the possibilities of providing the programs that make a difference thank you excellent and just for clarity for the for the public um we've already entered into conversations negotiations with the Oba to establish uh contractual stiens for those positions for next year so we've started the conversation um
we're working on other topics that are post negotiations with them now but that's already on the docket to have continued conversations as the willle of the board has been that they want to fund the uh program going forward thank you
David any other discussions on that topic any El okay um any questions or conversations on non-certificated Personnel Transportation okay any conversations on
Transportation Madam president I do not have a specific question on an agenda item but this might be a question for David weell um how's it looking with bringing back the late buses is is there a possibility uh
I know that this winter season has been stressful on our budget I'm sure and I know that if we were going to have a good winter and we had savings on that line item that we could possibly apply it to bringing back lake buses at some
point so where do we stand and how does it look for the feasibility and the possibility it's why it doesn't look good Mr dun it doesn't look good right now every time we have a snowstorm um I I I mean this
was a few years back I think a snowstorms around 27,000 it's more than that now there more than that now it's a few years back so you know 30 plus probably for per event and that's salting spreading plowing so as we're looking at multiple ones just in the past seven days that adds up and that
all comes off that 250 plus we're looking to to bring back to maybe to have it at some point and then you look at you know as to uh Mr wdel's point before that you know our our maintenance reserves aren't where they are were last
year so we're 4 million behind on that that was just to have an operating budget for last year to have everything all the programs that we maintained aside from uh the um that after school transportation piece so just to have the programs that we had last year um
required going to the 9.9 and using the maintenance funds just to have that so we wouldn't have a cut more so looking at the future I can't tell you that it looks glorious for the after school busing and it's uh you know one of those one of those very difficult decisions
that this board has had to make um because we want to uh establish programs and keep our programs for our students uh that are sustainable and things are less sustainable when you you know lose funds and we've uh we've lost I think around 26 million
over the course of the past seven years yeah I was just asking a question because I want this board to be transparent and make sure it's known out there that uh you know we did consider the possibilities but since we've had nine storms and if it's costing us close to $30,000 that's $300,000 that uh is
going out the door to deal with inclement weather and keeping um students safe and keeping the properties um Hazard free I get it and I just wanted to make sure that uh this board made it clear because we do have employees out there who were thinking and hoping that it would come back but
due to the circumstances of the challenging weather that we've had it's going to be very difficult based upon you know our budget situation and the restraints now we're only in February 14th or February 11th and we still have 45 days left of winter and I can imagine that we'll probably have another four
five six storms so that would deplete any monies that we have as well so I appreciate the I was going to say we're in the first of three this week There's Whispers of something next week like I don't know if this was the right week to ask about where we are pre- snowstorms
yeah as much as and I run that projection in payroll and you get a better sense around now um you know at the turn of the the calendar year to a new year you start seeing all right if this is what you spent on payroll in these lines you know in the first half then the second half you start to
project out and and um you know as as we knew we knew there was a retros that had to be paid out to Oba and those are forthcoming in the upcoming payroll um so some of the things that you know once you get this spring it's called the pluck and pool season where you start
you you look for the accounts that have some funds in and and you got to pluck and and pull from those accounts to to fund your other accounts and that that's kind of the uh you know the the artwork that we have to do for from now until the end of the year as far as pluck plucking and pooling you know where there is money wherever we can find
money and ultimately as Mike's talked to you know we're under 2% is always kind of where you want to be um at the end of a a school year so when you have over 2% it's great you you weren't spending but we're at the point where we think we're spending our necessities and we're under
that that 2% Reserve so you know we're what we're really spending is is the money that we need to spend on on you know our programs and and all that comes with it our maintenance and and everything so uh it's Bleak to to potentially bring back the the program right now again that's need a discussion
we'll have going forward uh at least starting on the 20th any other conversations on Transportation okay supplies equipment and services any discussion misscellaneous I have a
question go for it on number five I think we spoke about this last meeting the donation of 220 children's books from the bridge of books foundation for uh the students at Cooper um where did the donation come from
and is there a reason why it was only allocated to that one school instead of or is there a way for other schools to apply for that the the last time it was a Madison Park School I know this is the second year in which Cooper school has received this and it's it's basically an
application uh through the bridge bridge of books um from what I understand the information was provided to the school leadership and and is if they applied for it um they were considered I don't know if anybody was turned down but these are the schools that and I don't even sure what the requirements are I
mean both of those schools are Title One schools so that might be a requirement of as as well is now is that only limited to Title One schools or can any school will apply for that I don't know but I promise you I'll get that information tomorrow and uh uh Pro send it to you you got it I do know I think
the amount of books is that they're getting is based on enrollment I think it they once they get the application form you know it's reviewed by the bridge of books and based on the enrollment that they give I think there's a certain amount of books I think they're trying they were trying to get two books per student that was listed there but again that that's an
organization Bridge of books Foundation decision but I know we have a copy of that and a lot of information I received was just going on their website Bridge of books Foundation okay has a history of it and where the books come from okay any other
conversations okay uh board secretary and board business business we met uh last week and came up with goals for the district for the rest of this year and for next year as well as board goals so any conversation on any of
these Madam president I just want to say thank you to the board members who were present uh I know we had a few board members who were sick and uh were unavailable but we had a very robust conversation the Synergy room was excellent I think that the board is aligned on many of the issues that are
at the Forefront and I want to just thank my fellow board members for spending the time to come up with a um with a robust list of goals and I'm very proud to be part of of this group because I see that uh we are working together for the bman of the district
and I hope that continues into the future it was about a a three-hour conversation with the public and things like that so it was a good good night any other conversations on that part okay hearing of residents on any District issue
okay any comments from the board on anything okay I did want to say one thing that goes to the whole District um my daughter has uh ice skating lessons and last week there was a the fire alarm went off at the ice skating
rank so when the kids do the fire drill um let me tell you all the kids were in that were in there and not everyone was from Oldbridge but the kids were better than the adults as far as like not looking back just you know making sure you know like my daughter grabbed her friend and they went straight out with their ice skates I was a crazy mom
making sure like she wasn't in the building before I left um but you know the fire drills come in handy at the school so uh the kids did a great job so thank you for that training for the kids because it definitely does work um we are going to go into executive session I
have one more thing to go for whoa sorry oh that's what I thought we were do I'm sorry you want me to go first okay um so uh Scott elb had uh reached out to a couple of us board members regarding um
Brady's voice and the orridge high school hope Squad during um a February 27th meeting um if anyone is interested you could register for that um they are also doing a golf uh tournament for to
Tia for mental health um that's another thing that you guys can sign up for um if anyone is interested you guys can go on to the Brady's voice Facebook page sign up or reach out to Scott himself um I think that was all I had right that
was it yeah just the two okay that's all I had yeah I don't know if this is old business or new business so that's why I'm kind of in the middle of it but um in March 2022 I know that um board member um Teresa Burns had introduced a
an inclusion resolution um where basically um the board adopted it in March 22 I think Matt was on the board then and Jay was on the board then as well I was watching old board meetings to see um it basically is just um a commitment by the
Oldbridge School District to um ensure that the schools are inclusive of all students and um the diversity of needs um ensuring that students um all students are general education students but some may require additional supports
and the opp opportunities are provided for all students in all school programs um including extracurricular activities um interventions things like that and um just basically that the schools um always include inclusive
practices and I think it would just be nice if as a new board and since it hasn't been um reaffirmed since March of 2022 I just think it would be nice if next week we as a board reaffirmed it if anybody wants to see it we you can do that but just kind of um a few parents
reached out to me worried about um their their children not getting being able to get Services you know just based on um things that they've read um federally and and statewise and I think it would be nice if we um reaffirmed the
inclusion resolution um at next month's board meeting marger would you like to make that a motion I would like to make that motion that we reaffirm it a second I have a second Frisco second roll
call do we need to do a roll call discuss just discussion we'll put it on do well do they have to we'll formally put it on the agenda for we we have to see if there are three board members who wish for it to be on the agenda before we add it to the agenda so any discussion so we have margorie and Elena
I would add it I like to add I would as well so I think you have enough to put on the agenda is there anyone opposed okay so we can put that on next all right we will add that and I'll check where it was within the agenda to get it under the appropriate spot uh so
I have another thing also um one I want to thank uh Mr demino I had to reach out to him regarding uh every week we get the athletic schedule and I had asked him if it was possible to include all admin um as well as Town Council the
mayor to be included on those emails just to get more Community involvement in our you know for our Sports and I want to say thank you to him and to his team because I think I believe last week was the first week that you know everyone got it and they were I actually
got a few text messages that they were all appreciative of that that schedule going out to them also um Alena and I had attended the play unified pep rally at the high school last week was it I think it was last week um and it
was it really was it was such a a good it was such a fun game to watch uh the kids really into it the crowd really enjoyed it so afterwards I had reached out to Mr citadino and Mr wiell about a board of ederse admin volleyball game as
a fundraiser and I would really like to try to get something together where we can you know whether it's you know the nine of us verse you know nine admin or whatever the case may be and really you know raise money and we can put it towards some you know something whether
it's you know play unified or whatever it is we could put it and I think it would be a really fun and team building activity that we could do all together so Jan second thank you I'm definitely in I can tell you that uh we had a softball game back in 2013 the Board of
Education versus the township Council and it was a very well-received event and I think doing this again would be great I mean I had said baseball but I mean Elena came up with volleyball I'll go with volleyball but I think I I said
basketb you're right um oh we can do dodge ball Dodge B's fun too um but I just think it be a nice like team activity that we can just do together and just get you know the community involved and you know we could raise money and put it towards something
and you know just help out a little bit so what about a dunk tank I got I know someone that has a dunk tank I would love to dunk to some people in this town how about how about how about we do this I think that uh board member Mone has a great idea maybe we could take the
proceeds and do a scholarship fund uh with those proceeds um because we do give scholarships out in July um sorry in May so maybe we can consider that I think that may be a great Avenue to have some sort of fund you know put together for a a well-received child who needs
funding AB I I love that idea thank you so why don't we all take this week and come up with an idea and we'll add that to a discussion next week of where the funds could go and then we can work on on planning any opposition great idea and then we have
to decide who we're playing Town Council or the administration any other [Laughter] what Elena yes I do have um just one thing I wanted to well a couple things
actually that I wanted to touch upon um so I wanted to start by thanking Dr Tui for meeting with me um two weeks ago I I just told Christina I don't even know what day it is um but we we did make pretty recently I had some questions regarding CAC and he was kind enough to sit down with me and really go through
everything so I just wanted to say thank you for offering me all that information sharing with me sending materials um and I also just wanted to provide a little more transparency for the public so Mr citadino you did report on this um at our last meeting um and gave a little
background on what you know qac is with its five categories so I just want to focus um really quickly on the instruction and program SE SE um Mr cadino you had said that you know each section needs to get a score of at least 80 in order to pass in the state's eyes um and we did not in the
instruction and program um so I just wanted to provide exactly where we lost those points and in hopes that we can all work together to make sure we can um improve in the future and that being said I just want to preface this by saying I the state uses the njsla um in order to evaluate our district it's
really the only kind of standard way that they can treat all the districts in the the same manner um so while I don't always love that we're just using this one assessment um it's just the way that it's done right now so that's what I would like to share so we lost um 3.6 points um in ela achievement 4.4 in math
3.8 in science um although when you're looking at it the scores that they're out of are different so out of 7.5 I should start of said out of 7.5 for ELA achievement we lost 3.6 out of 7.5 for math we lost 4.4 out of five total for
science we lost 3.8 um we also lost some points in our progress so they don't only only measure what you get as a whole as a district on the njsla it's your progress as well so for ELA progress out of 7.5 we lost 2.1
and out of 7.5 for math we lost 1.3 um we also lost one point in the graduation section we did get 14 out of 15 and then there's one other section for school quality we got out of 10 we lost 1.4 and then we did lose a solid four for the health curriculum which we knew was
coming um so I just wanted to say as as a board member um as a parent as a community member and as a prior educator I'm more interested in seeing how we can improve our academic scores in the ELA and the math and especially the science because the ratio I guess if you're looking at it as a percentage we really
technically got 24% of the points we could have in science so the reason I bring this up is because I would love to I know Mr widell is about to Twitch sitting next to me um because we're not sure we stand with money um but I would love to see us acquire science
curriculum for the elementary and the Middle School levels um let's give our teachers our great teachers something more to work with because I know at this point we don't have something solid for them so that I will be pushing for that as much as I can within you know whatever budgets we have so I just
wanted to bring those numbers to light and let everybody know exactly where we lost those points um I know we are appealing to the state and hopefully um it'll come out with a better score but I want to focus on that uh let's see what else I just wanted to say a great job to Mr wal and his team for um such a
great outcome with our our audit um and I did also want to reply to um Mr Dunn when you were talking about UniFi the UniFi program and how um you know you hope all the board is is ready to push for it and I just want to say that I mean I'll speak for myself um that I am and that you know before you did uh join
us at the table we have been having lots of discussions um with them and you know to support that program as much as we can moving forward um and I'm a full proponent of what using whatever monies we have to make sure that program continues without any interruptions so I
just wanted to address that um thank you madam vice president that means a lot that you are on board with that program and it does pay dividends for children with uh who are challenged who have special needs so thank you 100% um I think that's it thank you uh just to piggyback a little bit of what alinaa
was saying regarding the science curriculum I had spoke to a few of our um especially Elementary School teachers um in different schools and they would also like to see some more engagement in the science aspect with you know experiments and stuff like that so if we
could look into that somehow I know again I know the budget doesn't always support it but I I think that's an important topic um and I think it would only benefit our kids so if we could look into that somehow
and yes to piggy back up off of the unified we have been working very closely with SEPTA to gain as much momentum on play unified as we can um so anything that we can do on our ends we
have been trying to do so that's really okay uh S I know you want talk I just want on this you might not know off the top of your head Dr but when was our science curriculum last reviewed last
summer when did we last be able to purchase materials so we do have a middle school curriculum um we did put a one-year bandaid on it for last year for this current year because we had a six-year contract um the science supervisor and head of testing Mr cawfield um was able to work out a deal
with the um uh the publishing company to allow us access to the materials we still use classroom sets of textbooks uh so we do have a 6 through eight curriculum um although it is uh needed to be replaced for this upcoming year um either you know for one more year or you
know for a long-term contract uh for um Elementary uh you know there is a little bit of a void the teachers are a little bit on their own in terms of getting materials uh we do have departmentalization um that's being talked about across the 11 elementary schools I know certain elementary schools do it now with much success um I
know that uh gram sha I would say Miller as well um does uh departmentalization it works very well the the kind of hurdle has always been those three section buildings uh including uh Vorhees Madison Park um and a couple other buildings uh so we are working
with those uh principles and if we are departmentalizing for all 11 elementary schools next year then that would be ideal be the ideal time to purchase uh four and five grade level science materials and some level of social study materials to allow those teachers who
are going to be doing the full-time science and social studies instruction because right now the elementary teachers teach three periods of vaa two periods of math and then the science social studies block so they're really prepping for four to five classes a um a day that would allow it by departmentalization they could be more
specialized we could do more specialized PD and then the materials would really benefit those teachers in in the departmental uh departmentalized grades of four and five is there a science curriculum for kindergarten on up or it really starts at 4 we have a curriculum but not a hard
cover textbook okay so there there are online activities and materials that are provided to the teachers in the curriculum guides um but there's not a textbook associated with those those mat I know we need to have like a textbook push but you know was as long as the kids are getting the curriculum and then we can work on advancing that part we
did have that just a record um in the Esser 3 Grant Circa 2022 23 I want to say um and then because of the S2 cuts um some of the curricul materials that we're looking to purchase through the um Esser 3 Grant Sr
2 Grant um was substituted by staff member um salaries just to make sure we're able to support the students with the I believe all the behaviorist and bcbas were put in there um as well as some other positions including reading Specialists so those have since come out of Any Grant funded positions that are
now locally funded but at the time we were planning on using that money for science materials and substituted it for uh Stu uh staff members who were supporting students any other questions on that part of the curriculum before we go to Sal's comments okay go ahead s sorry yeah as
stated earlier next week we're going to have our finance meeting and I remember last year it seemed like most of the people came just for the the public meeting at the very end and then in the subsequent months after that you know discussing the transportation issues so I'd like the public to be more involved
this time send more emails we went to Trenton last month and I didn't get a response I don't know if the administration got a response so unfortunately a lot of people didn't care about that in the Department of Education and the legislator so that's very unfortunate but I'd like the public
to participate make their voices heard CC me on the emails I haven't gotten any yet so I hope people start to get more involved in the process and speak up at the meetings so this is uh Thursday February 20th Thursday it will be committee the whole its executive session though so
we'll just be discussing the 2526 budget they can still send you know your comments as as you wish but it is an executive session uh for that that discussion because I I was also think saying like for one the meetings we should have it half to the public in the half executive session you think that
would be possible better well this one is for I really like to focus on the budget for this one it's a it's a big there's going to be a lot of discussion and and because the change of the um the structure I believe Finance is really
with long-term strategic planning and and shared services so this will really just focus on the on the budget for this one right so this one is executive session but future ones can be open to the public yes that's right yeah perfect all right thank you and that's it thank
you uh just one more thing I am proud to say that starting February 18th all of our schools across the district will now be serving breakfast so I really want to thank David wiell for getting involved and being as pushy as we can with that not pushy but you know what I mean as we
can with that I want to thank our our Mark team I'm I'm probably the pushy one but um it's it's a very good um it's a and it's it's a very very big accomplishment and really I want to say thank you for helping me and and Julia
from Aramark on getting this because I think it's such an important thing for our kids even if it's just one kid that's getting breakfast I I think it's amazing to have that across all the schools so I just want to say thank you and I hope that this program really just takes off thank you and we will say to
one school you know with the reintroduction the relaunch of the program we we saw you know sales of over 30 30 something students so C certainly uh you know whether whatever decision was made if it had a low participation it certainly has you know made an impact so thank you for your efforts that you
put forth and um you know that that's ultimately what the the the needs of the student so thank you any other old or new business I just want to touch basee on that just an example of that where you have a we have a student in District who doesn't actually attend school in District is
attending a a school out of District but that school doesn't participate in the free uh breakfast and lunch program but the family desperately needs it but this this team has been working um very hard to make sure that we have some way to get that meals provided for that student even though they won't be coming here uh
uh to receive those meals so um to your point to make sure we reach the needs of every every child um and for the children who are watching remember you have a two-hour delay tomorrow you get to sleep a little bit later and um hopefully this uh this winter will be
kind to us and allow us to uh to uh not use as many days and enjoy a spring break and or not taking any add any days on to school year so thank you um done one more thing I think um because we changed the days of some of the meetings to be on Tuesdays and
Thursdays the app still reflects the old days it does say tentative but it there's several meetings on the app that are on the wrong days now so maybe you want me to contact Joan tomorrow I think we need an updated list of the dates of the meetings I don't I we're just saying
them here so we need that list if you put them on that calendar that I sent um I don't know well I don't think the yeah so that was that was um the committee chairs need to kind of talk to your committee members and see what days
of the month work best um if you can shoot for Tuesday and Thursday that we decided that was going to try and be a goal but it's more important that your committee members are able to attend the meeting um but try and at least work on not only a meeting sooner but also plan
out uh going towards the end of the school year so that the public and the administration and stuff can plan appropriately so do you want me to just to contact Joan tomorrow and tell her to remove those meetings if you want to contact we have a running list within our office because any meeting we do have we do have advertised so if you
just send an email to Us Joan and myself we'll double check with that list and then I'll make the communication with Dr hooker and and uh Mr sadino to just make and Dr Tui as well just to see yeah we like to operate from a place where Joanne gets it they advertise it and
then we post it on on the district website we don't want to post it based upon it not being advertised yet because it could change any point from that point yeah I wasn't even talking about the new updated ones I was talking about just remove the ones that aren't going to happen because I don't want people to go out to a meeting ex question is do
you want all of the meetings taken off well there's no curriculum meeting tomorrow and that's on there and then there's a Dei take the tenative ones off yeah um especially if we're going to try and reallocate to the Tuesdays and Thursdays okay
okay so we'll remove I'll at Le at the very least take all of February March off and new dates and update perfect thank you Deb T thank you Debbie regarding the preschool um Lottery lottery today how
do how are people notified like how are the families notified if they got in if they didn't get in or uh so beginning uh tomorrow we'll go through the actual names associate them with the numbers that were provided to the parents uh via the
email system um I I did hear um through the great find that some of the initial emails that went out to parents went to their spam so if you signed up for lottery and didn't get a number uh go check your spam account it might be in there um but then once the uh parents are identified uh after uh we ask them
for if they're interested initial deposit uh and then after that we go to the wait list um the Oldbridge Township Preschool list is based on when a parent put in for the actual Lottery uh so I believe that the um the lottery link was
live honor around December 13th please don't quote me around that time um and then from number one down to one number 294 um that's the the uh the numbers that we go through uh based on the wait list if your name if your number was not
called uh so um and then sometimes when we ask for deposits parents are a little uh they're not quite sure they don't know if they want to send three-year-old to a full day preschool program um so we constantly go through the list and it's our running list all the way through uh until really the spring um by then we
have to solidify our class lists uh so um if you don't get a notification um this week U please don't uh don't count us out we'll reach out to you if and when there is a position that is open and do so as quickly as possible because I know this is the season that everyone's planning on doing their
preschool registrations so can I just add one thing on registrations so we opened up kindergarten registration on February 5th and 3 days later we had 303 students in the pre-registration process it's a two-step process so the
the first part is just going into the system and and putting in your first set of paperwork and then really going through and downloading the paperwork and filling in everything and submitting it and making sure that you have all of your documentation once all of the
documentation is received and we've checked it and confirmed then we put the student in real time they're cleared by the nurse um and they're an actual registered kindergartner we have six of those so out of 303 in three days six
people completed the process um it bring it up because it's really important that you complete the entire process in order to be registered and to save your spot and avoid potential overflow um one thing that we did this year is we put a
mailbox outside of central Administration right in front of the front doors there um you can drop off your documents at any time even on the weekend so if you can't get here during the week complete your paperwork you can email it to us you can send it in
electronically but if you don't have the means to do that or you prefer the hard copy put it in an envelope label it and put it right in that envelope and we'll process it so um that will hopefully help some folks out but make sure you complete all of the documents
I was saying in our meeting going over those enrollments these are your covid babies that's why we're seeing the numbers go up a little bit um these are the babies of covid well I have one school that has 10 slots left and it's a record for this
school so they're they're filling up so if if you don't want to be overflowed we encourage you to get your registration in early any other old or new business okay uh we're going to go into executive session so to the public thank you for coming drive home safely have a nice
Valentine's Day enjoy your long weekend for President's Day um a motion to go do any a motion J J motion Miss second all in favor I thank you very much